Banqueting, Billing, Cash up X / Z, Check-in / Out, Correspondence, Debtors, Deposit management, Diary, Email / fax, Guest Accounts, Guest History, Housekeeping, Quoting, Report Writer, Reporting, Reservations, Statistics, User Security/Monitoring, VIP - Frequent Guest, Waiting List, Walk in / Day use

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT,
GUEST MANAGEMENT
and
RESERVATIONS SOFTWARE

We have many clients with a variety of different property types and sizes.
Some of with only 10 accommodation units
and others with as many as 450 units.
Email us now for a quotation to suit your particular needs.

BACKGROUND
The HOST is a product of twelve years of software development and outstanding service to the leisure industry . This incredible software solution is very economically priced. It caters for every aspect of guest management in every kind of accommodation establishment. Here are some examples:  

Hotels
Caravan Parks
Motels
B and B's
Hot Water Spas
Lodges
Conference
Hiking Trails
Health Hydros
Trailer Parks
Resorts
Timeshare
Camps
Clinics
Backpackers
Wildlife Parks
Hostels
Residences
Hospitals
Central Reservations

Besides guest accounting - it also manages advance bookings and deposit accounting. It optimises room usage and rate-package allocations. It automatically creates correspondence and bills, and it generates statistical data. Furthermore it does financial reporting for the management of revenue and banking.

The software is also designed to integrate front-office guest accounting with Telephone systems, Cash-Drawers and Point of Sale systems for Bars, Curio Shops and Restaurants etc. In short, it gets you in control of your entire property.

The-HOST can run as a standalone system in smaller establishments or shared on LAN/WAN networks in the larger ones, thus allowing one or more users with different levels of security access to operate simultaneously. Typically, check-in and check-out activities can be handled at the reception, while at the same time reservations can be made elsewhere, like in the reservations office or the back office. Real-time POS and Telephone Billing facilities can be integrated to service in-house guests and casual patrons alike. At any time, management can extract information from a live system and perform management reporting and marketing functions.


FEATURES

PRODUCT DETAILS
Although The Host is very easy to use, it is also a very powerful and sophisticated software package. The main features of the Host can be examined under the following headings.

and of course there are various Optional Extras.


BENEFITS
The-HOST assists in steadily raising the value of your property by promoting higher returns and occupancies. The Host allows you to offer a consistently high level of administration and service to your guests. It encourages continuity in your front office by minimising the effect of staff changes. It prides itself on its stability, therefore ensuring that your guests receive higher and consistent levels of service with minimal losses from human error.

The-Host is a very economical option for all types of resorts - be it a Timeshare, a B&B, a privately owned Hotel or a chain of properties. We urge you to join our growing list of satisfied clients and secure your path to efficiency, economy, service and a solid future in technology.

In South Africa it is a particularly beneficial package as the entire system was designed and developed in the region. Therefore it is very focused on the way things are done here. Many of the staff working in our front-offices are not graduates from Hotel School so they do not know the terms or have the skills required to operate imported international software - our package simplifies that without reducing the power of the software. Imported software requires a much more expensive calibre of staff - making recruiting difficult and adding to your wage and training bill. Our software keeps those costs down, as the skills required to operate the package are basic. Something to bear in mind is that if you purchase imported software then your annual training bill is automatically going to be higher. And once you have trained your staff on those packages, they are likely to take jobs at corporate hotels that are stuck with the imported software and who will see it as a cheap way to acquire trained staff.

Another advantage for southern African users is that our annual licence fee is very reasonable as opposed to comparable imported products. The annual licence fee of imported products is often many times higher than the total cost of an installation from us. And bear in mind that their licence fee is payable every year, so you pay and pay and pay and most of your money ends up offshore.

With our product, you get the most cost-effective and proven local design, and your investment stays here.



CASHUP
The-HOST performs and includes the following :

Detailed Transaction Report:
  1. List per individual department to generate a highly detailed analysis.
  2. Links each transaction, by department, to specific guest reservation or debtor account - This makes finding transaction errors very easy indeed.
  3. Receipt analysis: Each receipt automatically allocated at time of payment, All listed with a serial number.
  4. The Receipts total calibrates the summary page per income department.
  5. Each income department is listed by individual transaction. This makes it very easy to identify missing payment vouchers or cheques.
  6. Many other features.



DEBTORS
The-HOST offers the following features with regards to Debtors :


DEPOSITS
A deposit confirms the reservation. Deposits received are added to deposits on hand. Deposits are transferred to guest account at check in time as a credit. Deposits can be refunded or forfeited (or a combination of both) if a confirmed reservation is cancelled.

Accept one or more deposits per booking
More than one deposit can be received for each reservtion, this allows for those advance bookings that require full payment prior to arrival. In many such cases the guest will send monthly payments

Tracking of deposits received / not received by deposit-due date
This allows decision to cancel reservations or to allow extension or deposit-due date.

Deposits requested for confirmation are automatically calculated
Deposit calculations are done according to pre-set parameters (as per your company policies). For example: According to Rate, Season, Pax, or percentage of Total and are made due on a date calculated from the day of booking or in advance of the arrival date. The-HOST automatically generates customizable request-for-deposit and confirmation letters that inform the guest of the Deposit Amount and due-date.

Specifically and separately tracked
Financial monitoring of deposits is handled over and above the regular financial tracking . Each cashup has a separate deposit movement report, which reports all deposit activity for that day (or shift) by the type of movement and the guest account or reservation that it is linked to. The extensive Cashup Report has a section for deposits that shows the total amounts for each of the following departments:

DEPOSITS ON HAND B/F     101250.00 Deposits total at the time of last Z Cashup
DEPOSITS RECEIVED     7500.00 New deposits received since last Z Cashup. Confirmed bookings.
DEPOSITS TRANSFERRED     22075.00 Deposits of confirmed reservations transferred into guest accounts during check-in
DEPOSITS FORFEITED     1025.00 Forfeited by guest for reservations  cancellation (optional)
DEPOSITS REFUNDED     0.00 Refunded to guests for reservations cancelled correctly
DEPOSITS PLACED ON HOLD     0.00 Refunded deposits kept on behalf of the guest, to be used for future reservations
RESTORED FROM HOLD     0.00 Confirmation of reservations by using deposit previously kept on behalf of guest
DEPOSITS ON HAND C/F     85650.00 Current total of deposits, it will be carried forward to the next Z Cashup.

 

GUEST ACCOUNTING
This refers to guests while they are in-house. (not Staff and Debtors/City Ledger accounts)



GUEST MANAGEMENT
On arrival, bookings become Current Guests and the account must be managed for the duration of the stay. There are many features available for guest management, some are covered here.

Check-In
View or print, guest-list due to arrive on current day. Print check-in forms for all arrivals in advance, or on an individual basis as each one arrives. At time of check-in, reaffirm details captured at time of reservation. Also, capture additional details by editing or adding to special requests (e.g. Time of wake up call, preferred morning beverage etc.) Special requests captured at reservation time are printed on daily house count and other reports. A variety of arrivals, in-house and departure reports are available. An option for checking whole groups simultaneously, saves the operator time.

Late Check-In
Allows you to check in a late arrival (e.g. due to adjusted travel arrangements) and automatically post charges for previous day or days (up to 7 days for game lodges and parks.)

Walk-In
Walk a guest in and capture all data in one quick and smooth sequence.

Transactions
Easy Billing and Payment receipting. Automatic accommodation posting. Automatic fixed item billing. Accounts can be split multiple times. Bills can be consolidated and they can be transferred to other accounts. Interfaces to Point of Sale and Telephone management systems are available to post dockets and calls directly to guest accounts. This saves time, but also ensures that all billing is posted correctly and no last minute calls or dockets are missed. 

Check-out
Check guests out at departure time. Group can be checked out simultaneously. Where allowed, guests can sign their bill and it can be transferred to debtors.

Extend or Shorten or Move
Departure date can be extended or shortened - the Host will check for availability and correctly adjust the chart and block off or free up availability. Guests can be moved to another room.

History
Once a guest has been checked out, they are processed into the history. Frequent guests can be given a VIP number for making further bookings easy and for promotions.




RESERVATIONS AND CHARTS

Make Reservations - For a variety of booking types :

Other Valuable Reservation Features


Electronic Reservations charts.
  1. Automated dynamic colour coded online Reservation chart.
  2. Can be viewed in several modes, e.g.:
    1. Reservation number mode
    2. Condensed reservation number mode (more data per screen)
    3. Guest name mode
  1. Can be printed with various levels of detail and for any range of dates.
  2. Provides controlled facilities to change reservation data :
    1. User can make changes on the chart while the program makes sure that double bookings are prevented. The chart is colour coded to easily distinguish between the various categories of accommodation. If changes are made that require a tariff change, the program warns of this and offers a quick convenient way to set the appropriate rate.
    2. Date changes (arrival change, departure change or both)
    3. Room / unit (change allocated number/s, allocate numbers automatically or manually (as when guest requests specific number/s)
    4. Protects against moving specifically requested numbers.
    5. Add room to a booking as a quick way to convert a single booking to a group booking, or to add more rooms to a group booking.
    6. Group date changes.
Each of the above activities is monitored and controlled to prevent double booking, or incorrect billing. Information is also specifically stored about who made the changes and when they were made.

Density Chart
This is a dynamic graphical tool that represents past, present and future occupancy, as a percentage per day. This dynamic view, changes with the reservation, check-in and checkout data changes and can be viewed on screen or printed. Excellent as a marketing tool to analyse past occupancy trends and future reservation availability. It has a mode for room density only, for those resorts that sell bookings per room, and a mode that shows room and bed densities for resorts that sell bookings per bed. This can be important because it can show problem periods when rooms are fully sold but beds are not fully sold causing lower income yields.

Availability Chart
Chart to indicate room availability by room number and / or room type for any date range. This is such a time saving and handy method of dealing with the continuous onslaught of queries as to availability faced daily by reservations and front-office staff. This is also available as a hot key - F9 that can be accessed from absolutely any point in the software, even when already capturing another reservation.

Overview Status Chart
A chart showing vital daily management statistics. This single screen shows at a glance, the number of rooms booked / rooms not booked, the number of beds sold / not sold, current in-house guests, unserviceable rooms and the total value at rack rates of the beds / rooms sold and unsold. This is shown as a column of figures and percentages per day for today and the next seven days.

Notepad Facility (one for each booking / guest)
To keep an accurate note and record of guest / conference special requests or any information that is over and above that catered for in the regular fields. This variable length field is for storing absolutely any data. It could be used for a variety of purposes e.g. meal preferences and activity programs. It is not limited to any size and can be from a few lines of data to several pages. (This must not be confused with the SPECIAL REQUEST field that is provided for similar purposes, but is limited in size because it appears on many screens and print outs. The Notepad is used in addition to that.)

Cancelling of Reservations
Cancel individual or block booking or an individual from a block booking to free up the reservation chart. The user making the cancellation is forced to state the reason for cancellation for management analysis. Deposits can be forfeited, or refunded or a combination both for partial refunds. Cancelled reservations can also be re-instated to the Reservation file with the necessary controlled checking for and adjusting of availability.

No shows
No shows are conveniently removed, recorded and counted for proper management analysis. Deposits are appropriately handled in the case of removing no shows.

Waiting List
Hold query bookings in the waiting list, that are automatically offered for bookings if availability arises from cancellations.

Guest History
This is built automatically as guests check out. It stores all guest data for later use in mailing lists and past guest analysis. Bills for past guests can be re-printed. At reservation time, past guest data can be copied up to save on typing.


SECURITY
The Host has a flexible security management structure. Depending on how stringent the security requirements are at each installation, it can be set to match those requirements.

Besides a user password approach, each user is also assigned a user profile. The profile can be customised to suit the precise job specification of the user. Access to each menu item in the Host can be granted or denied. Also the features of each module of the software can be individually granted or denied.

All user activity is logged to an Audit Trail of events, particularly changes to existing data and Receipting. This log is date and time stamped with each entry so that a reconstruction of events can be made when necessary. Each entry records the user who activated it, the workstation where it was performed, the actual event description with details of account or module affected by the event and the date and time. This all happens automatically in the background, without any loss of performance or effect on the user.

Additionally, each new record captured in the Host stores the date stamp of the moment of capture, along with the user name. This makes it easy to see who captured a new reservation or who posted a transaction. It also facilitates various important reporting features, for example on the individual operators - to measure work performance.



TIMESHARE

Integrates tightly with The-Host .

Ensures that the property is occupied to the maximum by interfacing with The-Host Hotel Front Office system to give seamless guest management for both Hotel and Timeshare types. Alternately it can be used solely for TIMESHARE letting or selling. It can be used as a central booking system with multiple properties.

Owner's File
Captures the following owners' information: Account or contract number, title, first name or initials, surname, contact person, telephone & fax numbers, address & postal code, comments, Balance, adults, children, infants & notepad. Right-clicking on the mouse allows user to move and owner to "old owners file" as well as calculate and view a range of balances (all accounts with zero balances, credit balances, balances greater than, less than or equal to a set amount)

Timeshare Calendar
With week numbers as well as the start and end days and dates for each week.
Week 53 is handled appropriately.

Bookings Chart
This is a visual representation of unit numbers and dates that they are booked or available; ( i.e. the number of days and the start and end days). Double clicking with your mouse on an occupied unit brings up the owner's details. Facility to search for a particular unit number, go to today's date and mark the chart with the owners time.

Sales Chart
This displays the unit numbers and the weeks that they are booked or available - (particularly useful to establish unsold units and weeks). Double clicking with the mouse on an occupied unit brings up the owner's details as well as his outstanding balance. Facility to search for room number by week.

Old Owner's File
Keeps a record of all previous owners whose units have been sold to new owners, re-possessed or cancelled.

Week Data
Gives user statistics by week including balances and available (unsold) units.

User Login
Different security levels of logging into the system.

Functions:
  1. Raise levies automatically for a specified period. Can be raised from a single week up to the whole year.
  2. Charge interest on overdue accounts.
  3. Post various transactions manually including payments with receipts.
  4. Daily cash-ups (x and z)
  5. Printing statements, reminder & overdue letters, arrivals list, age analysis, outstanding balances, owners file and
  6. other many reports.
  7. Facility to change year in order to book in advance.
  8. Facility to switch between multiple hotels or flats to view data.
  9. Many other Features.
  10. File verification utilities.

So if you have a bed and breakfast,
a backpackers lodge, a boutique hotel,
or a large hotel,
we have the package that will suit you!!

Contact Dianne now for a quotation!



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